CIDEM wins the World Habitat Award"

“Ecomaterials in social housing
projects” that EcoSouth partner CIDEM has been implementing in Cuba
since the year 2000 is the winner of the prestigious World Habitat
Award that will be presented during the "World Habitat Day"
festivities in Den Haag (Netherlands) and Monterrey (Mexico) at the
beginning of October. The project produces EcoMaterials in various
Cuban municipalities and has allowed 2332 families to repair or
reconstruct their houses or apartments during the past five years.

The project is an ideal merging of
investigation and development, combining the scientific work of
finding new ecological and economical solutions to produce materials
with the creative implementation of technologies on site. New ways
have been created to work with the municipal governments and the
National Housing Institute of Cuba. The backup provided by the
EcoSouth network through Grupo Sofonias during the different project
phases has been another important element, not only for the
development in Cuba but also for its impact abroad. The approach has
given important impulses to projects of other EcoSouth network
partners, especially in Ecuador, Nicaragua and El Salvador.

It is not the first occasion that this
project has been internationally recognized. The “Dubai Award” of
the United Nations had already chosen it as one of 40 finalists from
over 2000 projects and the “Habitat” magazine highlighted it as
excellent in 2004. The project began under the name “From waste to
houses” financed by the German NGO “Werkhof Darmstadt” with
co-finacing from the European Union, and later other agencies have
financed extensions of the program to other municipalities and
provinces. At present a new phase is being started with financing
from Cosude (Switzerland) and CIDA (Canada).

The Ecosouth network congratulates the
whole team of CIDEM, especially Fernando Martirena who always has
been the motor of the project and Pedro Seijo who through a
combination of patient insistence and diplomacy overcame thousands of
difficulties.